Brotherly Love?

The Shamrock brothers, Ken and Frank, have signed contracts, in principle, to face each other in either March or April of 2009. Along with a concrete date, there are still many aspects that still need to be ironed out before the brothers will be able to end their decade-long feud, such as; the venue, salaries and most importantly which organization will promote it. Most likely, it would be held under ProElite’s umbrella, but they would need to decide whether to show the event on CBS, Showtime or possibly on their first-ever Pay-Per-View event.

“Currently I don’t,” Frank told MMAWeekly.com about what organization might promote the event. “We’ve got a real good relationship with Elite and Showtime and CBS, so I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be those guys and I’m going to see if I can drag Affliction aboard here.”

OF course for financial reasons, both Shamrocks are hoping that they will be able to sell their feud well enough to warrant EliteXC’s first ever PPV event.

“I think if any fight ever were a pay-per-view match, this is the one,” he commented. “I really feel like network television and cable television can really support this pay-per-view by showing other media properties that kind of tell the story of this sport and tell the story of the Shamrock family. That’s my real focus right now, get these other networks to kind of drive some stories to help boost this fight.”

Looks like Frank is already in promotion/selling mode to milk this estranged relationship for all it’s worth. But first thing’s first, at least the fight will be taking place this time.

“We’ve both signed a contract to fight each other,” Frank Shamrock told ESPN.com. “Ken is down with it. We talked about it two years ago, and we’ve agreed materially to fight.”

The brothers rarely agree about much, however both agree that the only way that they can settle their differences would be in the cage.

“Will the fight happen? Absolutely,” Ken Shamrock told ESPN.com. “He’s got a buttkicking coming to him. Everything I’ve learned, everything I have bottled up in me, is going to come out on him. I’ve still got love for Frank, but I’m angry at him.”

The Shamrocks were both adopted by Bob Shamrock, who founded “Shamrock Home for Boys.” The organization provides a safe haven for troubled teens. Both Ken and Frank had their fair share of difficulty growing up, and that is why Bob decided to take both of them in. They didn’t meet each other until Frank was in his late teens, and according to both fighters, were never really close.

Ken was the one that initially brought Frank into MMA, and served as a mentor during his early years. The two had their falling out during the mid 90’s when Frank wasn’t happy with the direction that Ken wanted to take Frank’s career. Ken states that the beef actually started because Frank did and said many disrespectful things to their adopted father.

When this fight happens, it will be the first ever Brother vs. Brother bout in MMA. The two have been trying to make this fight happen for the past two years, and were close to finalizing a deal earlier this year. Negotiations hit a snag when Ken suffered a disappointing loss to little known Robert “Buzz” Berry in March, and Frank broke his arm in his loss to kickboxing sensation Cung Le that same month.

With the two fighters coming off of losses, and Frank hurt, it was a tough sell to MMA fans. However, Ken seemed to rejuvenate his name within the MMA world when he signed on to fight Kimbo Slice at “EliteXC: Heat” this month, and the fight seems to have picked up its momentum once again.

Ken was forced to pull out of the Kimbo bout as he suffered a cut during a light training session just hours before the fight. Frank, who was doing the color commentary on the CBS event, was very critical of his brother for putting himself in that position so close to fight time. In fact, Frank stated that he offered to fight Kimbo when he heard that Ken was not going to be cleared by doctors. EliteXC respectfully declined his offer.